Railway coupler head

ABSTRACT

An improved railway coupler head having an integral horizontal metal wall section cast within the upper locklifter hole to completely close the upper hole thereby preventing foreign matter from entering into the coupler. The wall is relatively thin and is formed by the improved method of removing a portion of the coupler cope core, depending upon the desired location of the wall, prior to casting to thereby permit forming the easily removable horizontal wall section.

lJnited States Patent [191 Bossong RAILWAY COUPLER HEAD [75] Inventor: Raymond J. Bossong, Alliance, Ohio [73] Assignee: AMSTED Industries Incorporated,

Chicago, Ill.

[22] Filed: Nov. 16, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 199,288

Related US. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 4,937, Jan. 22, 1970, abandoned.

[52] US. Cl. ..213/75 R, 213/166 [51] Int. Cl. ..B6lg 3/04, 861g 3/08 [58] Field of Search ..2l3/75 R, 159, 166

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,000,435 5/1935 Bazeley ..2l3/166 1 May 29,1973

5/1939 Kirme etal. ..2l3/l66 5/1941 Metzger ..2l3/l66 Primary Examiner-Drayton E. Hoffman Attorney-Walter L. Schlegel, Jr.

57 ABSTRACT An improved railway coupler head having an integral horizontal metal wall section cast within the upper locklifter hole to completely close the upper hole thereby preventing foreign matter from entering into the coupler. The wall is relatively thin and is formed by the improved method of removing a portion of the coupler cope core, depending upon the desired location of the wall, prior to casting to thereby permit forming the easily removable horizontal wall section.

5 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures RAILWAY COUPLER HEAD This is a division of my co-pending application, Ser. No. 4,937, filed on Jan. 22, 1970, and now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Railroad coupler heads generally have formed therein an upper and a lower locklifter hole which are designed to receive some of the necessary operating parts for either top operation or bottom operation of the coupler. The bottom operation is the preferred form for general use since less force is required at the operating rod handle as compared to a top operation. In addition the operating rod for bottom operation is simpler in design and may be readily located in a convenient position for use by the trainmen. Since most railroads use the lower locklifter hole, it becomes necessary to close the upper hole to prevent entry into the coupler of foreign matter which could impair the coupler operation. However, a permanent closure of the upper hole is not desired since the railroads may, at some future time, desire to revert to top operation of the coupler.

Prior art practice has been to use a top lock-lifter hole cap of the type shown generally as the numeral 10 in FIGS. 1 4, which is welded to the coupler casting 12. The hole cap 10 comprises a plate 14 having a plurality of lugs 16 which are sheared out of the plate 14 and are bent downwardly so that their edge 18 will come in contact with the wall 20 of the upper locklifter hole 22. The plate 14 also contains a plurality of semi-circular holes 24 in proximity to the lugs 16. The plate 14 is fastened to the coupler casting 12 at the holes 24 by means of a welded joint 26 to secure the cap 10 and to seal the openings 24.

When it is desired to convert the coupler, shown generally by the numeral 28 in FIG. I, to a top operation, the hole cap 10 must be removed by releasing the welded joints 26 so that the necessary upper locklifter parts can be positioned in the upper hole 22.

The use of the locklifter cap 10 to seal the upper hole 22 in this manner has not been completely satisfactory since the cap 10 is generally welded in three places to the casting 12, leaving the periphery 30 of the plate 14 unsealed. In order to completely seal the opening 22, it would also be necessary to continuously weld around the periphery 30 of the plate 14 which would be prohibitive costwise. Experiments have been generally unsuccessful using special pressure sensitive tape to hold the plate 14 on the casting 12 in lieu of thebeforementioned welded joints.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to overcome the problems and difficulties inherent in this type of prior art device, there has been provided by the present invention, a new and improved method for completely closing a portion of the upper locklifter hole by altering the main cope core, prior to casting, to form a relatively thin integral horizontal wall section within the upper locklifter hole. The thin wall thusly formed may be easily removed when it is desired to convert the coupler from a bottom operation to a top operation.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved railroad coupler with a new and novel integral horizontal wall section cast within the top locklifter hole to completely close the upper portion of the hole to prevent entry of foreign materials into the coupler, the wall being of a minimal thickness that allows its easy removal when top operation of the coupler is desired.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved method of casting a coupler wherein the main core or cope may be easily altered for use in forming a relatively thin horizontally cast wall section within the upper locklifter hole.

These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from a study of the specification and a review of the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side perspective view of a railroad coupler showing the top locklifter hole closed by a prior art device;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the prior art device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the device shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view of a railroad coupler taken through the top locklifter hole and showing the prior art device fastened to the locklifter hole;

FIG. 5 is a partial cross sectional view taken through the cope and coupler head core of the mold prior to casting;

FIG. 6 is a partial cross sectional view taken through the cast coupler head showing the new and novel horizontal integral cast wall section formed within the upper locklifter hole; and

FIG. 7 is a partial cross sectional view similar to FIG. 6 showing the wall section formed flush with the top of the coupler casting.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing in general and in particular to FIGS. 5 through 7, there is shown in FIG. 5 a cross section of the cope 32 along with the coupler head core 34 both of which are formed by means well known in the art. The cope 32 contains a downwardly extending portion 36 which is positioned against an upwardly extending portion 38 formed on coupler head core 34. When formed thusly, the portion 36 and the portion 38 combine to form the upper locklifter hole 22 whenever metal is cast by well known means in the space 40 between the cope 32 and the coupler head core 34.

When it is desired to cast the horizontal integral wall section 42 within the upper locklifter hole 22, the main coupler head core 34 may be easily altered by rubbing the portion 44, contained between the line 46 and the dotted line 48, to remove the sand within the portion 44. As an alternate, a plate the shape of portion 44 may be placed in the box used to form core 34 to void portion 44 of sand, thus making it a part of space 40. The coupler which is then cast will have a relatively thin wall section 42 formed within the upper hole 22 which may be later easily removed by burning or cutting whenever it is desired to convert the coupler to top operation. The wall 42 thus formed serves to completely close the upper locklifter hole 22 thereby preventing foreign matter from entering into the coupler. The

thickness of the wall 42 is dependent upon the amount of sand that is removed from the portion 38 of the main core 34 with a preferred thickness being approximately one quarter of an inch. This thickness is sufficient to seal the upper hole 22 but still allows the wall 42 to be easily removed by cutting or burning.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 7 of the drawing there is shown a modification of the invention wherein the relatively thin horizontal wall 50 is formed with its upper surface 52 substantially flush with the top 54 of the coupler casting l2 and the top of the upper locklifter hole 22. The wall 50 is formed in this manner by altering the downwardly extending portion 36 of the cope 32 instead of the portion 44 of the main coupler core as beforementioned. The portion 36 is rubbed to remove the sand contained between the line 46 and the dotted line 56 so that a subsequent casting of metal in the space 40 will form the wall 50 shown in FIG. 7. The amount of sand that is removed from the portion 36 determines the thickness of the wall 50 with a preferred thickness being approximately one quarter of an inch.

It is apparent from a reading of the specification that the wall section closing the upper locklifter hole 22 may also be formed by removing a portion of both the portion 36 of the cope and the portion 44 of the coupler core 34 without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

From the foregoing it can be seen that there has been provided a new and improved railway coupler head having a relatively thin integral metal wall section cast entirely within the upper locklifter hole to completely close the upper hole. The wall section is cast by the new and improved method of casting described herein of altering a portion of the coupler core or cope prior to casting, so that the desired section may be subsequently cast. it is apparent that many changes in details of the construction or the method of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the accompanying claims and the invention is not to be limited to the exact matter shown and described since only the preferred embodiments have been given by way of illustration only.

I claim:

1. In a railroad coupler of the type having an upper and lower locklifter hole for installation of a top operating or a bottom operating locklifter assembly, the improvement comprising the upper hole having formed within said hole an integral horizontal cast metal wall section completely closing said hole to prevent entry into the coupler of foreign materials, said wall being of a thickness that permits said wall to be easily removed when the coupler is converted from a bottom operation to a top operation.

2. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the upper portion of said horizontal wall is substantially flush with the top of the upper hole and the top of the coupler and said wall is substantially one quarter of an inch thick.

3. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the upper portion of said wall is approximately one quarter of an inch below the top of the upper hole and the top of the coupler and said wall is substantially one quarter of an inch thick.

4. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the thickness of said integral horizontal cast metal wall is one third or less than the thickness of the top wall of the coupler casting.

5. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the thickness of said integral cast metal wall ranges from one quarter of an inch to five-eighths of an inch. 

1. In a railroad coupler of the type having an upper and lower locklifter hole for installation of a top operating or a bottom operating locklifter assembly, the improvement comprising the upper hole having formed within said hole an integral horizontal cast metal wall section completely closing said hole to prevent entry into the coupler of foreign materials, said wall being of a thickness that permits said wall to be easily removed when the coupler is converted from a bottom operation to a top operation.
 2. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the upper portion of said horizontal wall is substantially flush with the top of the upper hole and the top of the coupler and said wall is substantially one quarter of an inch thick.
 3. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the upper portion of said wall is approximately one quarter of an inch below the top of the upper hole and the top of the coupler and said wall is substantially one quarter of an inch thick.
 4. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the thickness of said integral horizontal cast metal wall is one third or less than the thickness of the top wall of the coupler casting.
 5. The improvement as defined in claim 1 wherein the thickness of said integral cast metal wall ranges from one quarter of an inch to five-eighths of an inch. 